Philadelphia 76ers: Sixers fire on all cylinders, romp the Knicks

New York Knicks' Carmelo Anthony, center, tries to go up for a shot as, from left to right, Philadelphia 76ers' Spencer Hawes, Damien Wilkins and Nick Young defend during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

PHILADELPHIA — Jrue Holiday scored a career-best 35 points, Nick Young added 20 points in a spot start and the Sixers upset the New York Knicks, 97-80, Saturday night.

The Sixers paired a hot start with a solid finish to send the Atlantic Division-leading Knicks home in embarrassing fashion. Monday, against another division leader in Memphis, the Sixers will go for their first winning streak since Nov. 30.

The only major development after halftime involved Sixers coach Doug Collins, who left the bench a few minutes into the third quarter and did not return. He was checked out by team internist Dan Lazowick of Main Line Health.

And the only dilemma for the Sixers? When assistant coach Michael Curry would opt to lift the Sixers’ starters from the game. A majority of them took a spot on the bench with 2:20 remaining.

Advertisement

Defeating the Knicks would take more than luck. That’s why Collins rolled the dice.

Young and Spencer Hawes started for the Sixers, representing a change that the team desperately needed. The starting five had grown stagnant, with lackluster Lavoy Allen giving them nothing routinely and aged Jason Richardson struggling to stay healthy enough to play regularly.

So that’s the direction in which the Sixers turned, starting Young, who had led the Sixers to an 0-3 record in his starts, and Hawes, who hadn’t started a game since last season.

And what followed couldn’t have been forecasted by anyone. Not even the Sixers could’ve seen this one coming, what with all of those fast starts and hot-shooting nights to which they’ve grown accustomed.

The guys in the white uniforms have been more visible on milk cartons than at Wells Fargo Center.

A 6-for-6 opening to the game altered that trend. It also led to the Sixers winning the first quarter, something they haven’t been able to do all that regularly.

Taking a 24-19 lead into the second quarter, the Sixers won the first period of a game for only the 11th time in 44 games.

Proving the first quarter wasn’t a fluke, everything went right in the second quarter, too.

There was that 5-on-4 fastbreak, with Anthony on the floor at the other end, and Thad Young catching and dunking a pass from Holiday at the other. There was that Holiday 3-pointer, the one that gave the Sixers’ their first double-digit lead. There was down-low help on the weakside, with Turner and Young teaming to slow Anthony’s offensive potency.

There was even that halfcourt alley-oop pass from Nick Young to Evan Turner, a dunk that sent the Sixers’ into the locker room with a 53-41 lead at the break.

It was working for the Sixers. All of it. Offense. Defense. Beating the Knicks to loose balls. Winning the battle of the glass. Limiting turnovers. Managing the bench.

It wasn’t kismet or anything of the sort, either. The third quarter made that rather evident.

In the 12 minutes following intermission, the Sixers shot 10-for-17 to expand their lead to as many as 29 points, at 82-53 — their largest lead in any game this season. And the Knicks? They misfired on all but five of their 22 attempts in the third quarter.

Stunned, but not knocked out, the Knicks surged back — somewhat — in the fourth quarter.

Per the norm, Holiday started the period on the bench, where he was joined by Thad Young, who was being examined. In those three-plus minutes, New York assembled a 9-1 run to trim the Sixers’ lead to 18, at 85-67.

Reason for panic? Not exactly. Not with nine minutes to go.

That proved to be the case when the Sixers, with Holiday and Young back in the game, led the team on a 7-2 spurt, including five unanswered from Turner, that put away any notion that the Knicks could rally in this one.